The Alpha's Hunt Chapter 71

We headed straight to the bar, past all of the sweaty bodies writhing tighter on the dance floor.

The lights pulsated in different colors to the music and I couldn't hear my thoughts in here. It was perfect. 

I saw the liquor on the glass shelves behind the bar. The lamps shed a cold light over the bottles and I was salivating by the time was got there. 

“Tequila please,” I said and put my hands on the bar. 

The bartender furrowed his brows and grabbed the bottle.

“Do you want shots or a drink?” He asked while shaking his head and narrowing his eyes.

I smiled and leaned against the bar as I took out my card.

“I want the bottle,” I said and waited for him to put it down.

His quizzical brow turned soft and he smiled when he put the numbers in.

“There you go,”

Nora ordered a drink and a few shots. She begged me to dance but I wanted to finish the bottle first.

I wasn't here to have a good time, I was here to forget and maybe for a moment pretend like I didn't exist in this reality.

It was freeing to watch Nora dance, the way that she swayed to the music and moved her body like she didn't have any bones. She danced with guys and girls alike and had a blast. I wrapped my lips around the neck of the bottle and chugged down a good part of the burning liquid.

Let’s do one more, I thought and downed about half the bottle. I closed my eyes and thought of a happy memory with my parents and my sister, we had a few of those. The pain made me want to give up but the anger made me vengeful, I needed to choose. Or maybe one could fuel the other. I tucked the memories away again and hoped that no more would show up tonight.

“You won't find them at the bottom of that bottle,” 

His voice was deep and new, his smell was gloriously different and I could tell right away that he wasn't a werewolf.

I turned my head to see the man who seemed to know a little more than he should.

With jet-black hair and a small scar above his thick eyebrow, his profile was beautiful.

He didn't turn around, even when I gawked at him.

In his hands was a crystal glass and when I looked at the glasses behind the bar I saw that none of them were as fancy as the one he was holding. He had the most gaudy rings on his fingers, big and tacky with sigils around the metal and then there was the tattoo that stretched from his right hand up his arm and disappeared under his black shirt. 

I saw the sharp jawline, his smooth skin, and the way that a lock of his hair fell perfectly just next to his narrowed eyes which were framed by thick, dark lashes.

His lips pulled up while he took the glass to his mouth. 

“It’s rude to call someone tacky,” 

I laughed and turned back to my drink.

“Just your rings,” I said. The tequila burned my throat but felt more comforting than anything had in a long time when it entered my stream and took control of my senses.

It was finally about to reach my brain and I was just starting to feel a buzz coming on when a thought hit me and I choked on the tequila still in my throat.

“How did you know what I was thinking?” 

The longer he waited to give me an answer, the more foggy my brain was getting from the tequila.

That happy memory I was thinking about was twisting and contorting into a different image that I couldn't see because of the blurry spots that covered it. Seems I hadn't managed to shove it back as far as I thought.

The pain I felt when I came in here was slowly washing clean off me though, that was the plan and the plan was working. Good for me.

I decided to ignore the stranger, he was probably just pulling some trick on me and I didn't want to get dragged into anything. I was here to let go, I turned back and looked at the bottle.

But his scent was still lingering in my nose and I couldn't place it.

“Do you know what he is?” Trixy had to know.

“I don’t, I've never smelled anything like it before,” 

Well, that’s not good. 

“You could ask me instead of your wolf,” 

I whipped my head to the side so fast that I saw three of him instead of one. 

I felt something under my arm keeping me from falling off the chair and looked down at his hand under my elbow, holding me up.

“I did, you didn't answer,” I slurred and pulled my arm back. 

It took a while for my focus to come back, all three of him had to merge into one and then the blurry filter had to go away.

It took a while but after I blinked about fifty times and allowed my brain enough time to adjust, I saw his face, all of it, and for a moment I forgot how to breathe.

He smiled and licked his lips while running a hand through his hair.

“I-“ he started when a loud, cheerful scream, rudely interrupted him. 

“Hazel! Look who’s here!”

I turned to look at the poor person whose eardrums Nora was busting and my jaw dropped to the floor while my mind turned sober in a split second.

Iliana stood on the dance floor with pearls of sweat on her hairline from dancing, dressed in a beautiful red dress that fell under her knees and a pair of gorgeous ruby earrings that blinded me.

When I made my way across the floor, I saw her shaking her head at Nora and biting down hard enough to cause a click in her jaw. 

An odd reaction to seeing me, I had to say, but then again the last time we saw each other she almost died and lost her mate because of me. 

“Iliana, hi!” 

I fell against her in a hug and tightened my arms around her shoulders. She hugged me back but it was a hug you’d give to someone that you didn't want to hug but did anyway because it would be rude not to.

My brows pinched together and I slowly released my arms and backed away. 

“Hi,” her timidness hadn’t changed at least.

Maybe it was being here that made her nervous. Being this close to Darian couldn't be easy for her. 

“I’m surprised to see you this close to the palace. I honestly never thought I'd see you here again,” I laughed but the pain was bubbling back up and I wasn't sure that tequila was going to kill it this time. 

I felt a presence coming up behind me and stopping when he was close. The energy was a strong one that made my chest rise and my hands relax.

The guy from the bar stood next to me when I turned my head and his hardened gaze was scanning Iliana, holding her eyes captive with an intensity that made her heart beat faster.